Spiritual Strength - Today with Allen Jackson - December 2, 2018

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

The only way to gain strength is to exercise to the point of fatigue. You can’t get stronger unless you get exhausted. I would like to believe that I can stretch out on the couch with a bag of cheese puffs and three liters of soda and get fit while I watch a football game. Sadly, we know that will not happen. What’s true physically is also true spiritually: we gain spiritual strength at those places where we are fatigued. We have brought that “watch the football game” model to Christianity. We think we gain spiritual strength by coming to church and watching somebody talk to us about the Bible. It’s a nice idea, but it’s wrong. In the places where the challenges of life bump up against you, where you get tired of doing good, where you don’t want to forgive one more time―it’s in those places of weariness and fatigue that we have opportunities to gain strength.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, give me strength to push on when I am in a place of weariness. Give me perseverance and patience to take another step, knowing that greater strength is on the other side. Remind me when I have an opportunity to encourage others, Lord, that Your people may be built up and Your Kingdom extended. In Jesus’ name, amen.